“As far as I was concerned, about the only thing we could update was the engines,” he said, “so I changed the design of the pods and the struts. I still wanted an absolutely plain exterior. Anything that man makes is going to break down; why put him outside in the worst possible environment when you can put him on the inside?”

Phase II model

The level of detail that can appear on a motion-picture model is far greater than that which can appear on a model for television. That’s why the Enterprise model built for the aborted second television series was set aside and a new model built. It still followed the basic update developed by Jefferies and Joe Jennings for Phase II, but new and more detailed modifications were added.

Richard Taylor, the movie’s art director, explained:

My approach was to give it a stylization that was almost art deco. Things became more elongated and more elegant than the TV series version.

Taylor brought in Andrew Probert to design all humanoid spacecraft for the film, so there would be a perceived visual continuity between all the hardware. He only asked Probert to delegate the task of redesigning the warp engines to him.

I spent weeks drawing and redrawing the nacelles. The front end of them is almost a 1940 Ford grille.

As Taylor felt they should stay with the proportions inherited from Jefferies, Probert lengthened the ship by only a few feet and enlarged the saucer, eventually adding more detailed superstructures to the top and bottom of it.

Additionally, he came up with a new photon torpedo launcher, redesigned the navigational deflector dish area, updated the impulse engine and added phaser banks around the ship.

Detail of the Phase II model

Concept art by Andrew Probert

Concept art by Andrew Probert

Detail of the Phase II model

Concept art by Andrew Probert

Concept art by Matt Jefferies

Concept art by Andrew Probert

Concept art by Andrew Probert

Where the Enterprise in The Original Series launched torpedoes from some mysterious port located near the center of the saucer’s underside, a single round torpedo tube was conceptualized for Phase II. That evolved into a pair of tubes, painted by Mike Minor for Paramount’s announcement posters for the new production, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Probert originally considered torpedo launchers with doors, which would open when needed. But he was asked to provide concepts of the tubes when exposed, and to add more visual detailing. “I wasn’t totally in favor of the idea,” he said, “because this blatant display of weapons suggested a more aggressive posture to the design.”

Large decals were made and applied, and may be seen in various early production stills, but when the ship was given its final paint job, they were removed and [special effects chief Doug] Trumbull decided to leave them off.

Concept art by Andrew Probert

Publicity photo of the Enterprise model (Cinefantastique)

Although Taylor and Probert kept the exterior of the ship smooth, they were careful to give it an interesting texture and added many windows to the classic design. Taylor recalled they even gave the ship a few inhabitants.

We used small transparent images of the sets inside the windows, so that when the camera got close to the model it appeared that you could see something in the windows. By the way, in some of those windows you can see photos of Mickey Mouse, Andy Probert and others as a kind of in-joke.

An avowed Star Trek fan, Probert remembered that in “The Apple” Kirk had told Scotty that, if necessary, he should separate the saucer section. So at Probert’s suggestion the model of the new Enterprise was designed to separate, even if this was never seen.

Concept art by Andrew Probert

Probert even went to the trouble of giving the Enterprise landing gear.

Popular opinion indicated that [on the original ship] the two triangular points on the underside of the saucer were actually two landing legs and the third one would be a telescoping leg in the doral-support cavity, so the saucer would have tricycle landing gear for a planet landing. For The Motion Picture‘s Enterprise, I designed four landing pads on the underside of the saucer.

Taylor planned one final departure for the Enterprise, but this was abandoned before the film was released. His idea was that the warp engines should generate an obvious energy field, so he wanted the nacelles to have light panels built into them.

I wanted to have an effect that radiates from the glowing panels on the nacelles; something you could see. We would have had that streak when the ship was in motion.

The model was built at Magicam, and after Robert Abel and Associates left the film it was filmed by Trumbull’s VFX team. It was then used in the next five movies before being brought out retirement so Foundation Imaging could study it and build their own CG version for The Director’s Edition.